It may be net downhill but Boston is a marathon course that takes no prisoners. And even the ‘Greatest Of All Time’ is not immune from the unique psychological pressures and physical demands of the 26 miles 385 yards that has been the recognised marathon distance since the London Olympics of 1908.

Marathon legend Eluid Kipchoge entered his first Boston Marathon with the sole intention of winning in a course record time to add to his burgeoning collection of fastest times at the six Abbott World Marathon Majors, as reported in runABC here.

His target was fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai’s 2:03:02 from 2011, set in a great battle with Moses Mosop, of Kenya. The time would have been a world record but for IAAF rules in 1990 that stated marathon records could not be set on courses that dropped more than one metre per kilometre. The Boston Marathon drops overall by an average of 3.3 metres each kilometre.

Kipchoge led through 10K well inside course record pace at 28:52 and it seemed that history was about to be made. However, a halfway split of 1:02:19 did not bode well as Boston is much tougher in the second half. A missed drink station at 19 miles may have contributed to his downfall but the wheels came off for Kipchoge in the last 10K as he finished sixth in 2:09:23 behind defending champion Evens Chebet (Kenya, 2:05:54), Gabriel Geay (Ethiopia, 2:06:04) and Benson Kipruto (Kenya, 2:06:06).

The women’s race saw a stunning victory in a close race for track specialist Hellen Obiri (Kenya, 2:21:38) in only her second marathon from Amane Beriso (Kenya, 2:21:50) and Lonah Salpeter (Israel, 2:21:57).

Before the race, several thousand people paid their respects at the memorial for the three spectators killed at the finish line bombing 10 years ago in 2013.

This was the 127th Boston Marathon held on Patriot’s Day in the USA, Monday 17 April 2023.

Results and previous Boston reports are available at runABC race listing here.

Cropped image courtesy Marco Verch via Creative Commons